Thursday, October 4, 2012

Ready to redeem myself... Milwaukee Marathon 2012

Today was my last workout of this season.  It was bittersweet as I really started enjoying all of the 4:30am workouts (not that I have to stop that, but I just won't be training for a marathon anymore).

This week I had a 20min tempo on Tuesday and a 3miles at Marathon Pace today.  I ran them about the same.  Since they were both early in the morning, I only had my Garmin splitting at every mile to let me know what pace I was running at.  I just went on feel, since Milwaukee doesn't allow GPS watches.  I have to know what pace feels like if I want to have a good race, so I've really been making sure to only look at my Garmin when it splits my mile so I can gauge how close I was to my target pace.

Tuesday I went 6:09 (oops), 6:14, 6:13, xx for 3.25miles total
Thursday I went 6:20, 6:13, 6:14 for the 3miles

I ran the same course both times, but Thursday was after a late afternoon massage by Dave Davis, so I knew I'd be a tad sore.  I was okay with the soreness as it slowed me down and kept the pace a little more honest.

I haven't really told many people that I'm racing Milwaukee.  I used that approach last year as well to kind of keep it low key and pressure free.  I figure now that people are picking up their packets and posting their Chicago bib numbers on Facebook, I could answer the "you're not racing Chicago?" question on my blog.

It's not that I don't like Chicago.  While it is crowded, it sure is nice to run with someone.  I just have some unfinished business at Milwaukee.  After tearing the hamstring at mile 10 and just pushing through it, I want to go and RACE this year.  I want to be SMILING at the finish line because I completed a marathon pain free.

In the end, that's every marathon runner's goal anyway.  So GOOD LUCK to all of my friends and family racing this weekend.  Remember how lucky we all are to have made it healthily to the start line and use that to keep the negative thoughts and pain away.  Sunday is YOUR DAY!!!

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